1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a shaping tool.
2. Prior Art
The traditional tools used by a farrier to shape an individual horseshoe so that it snugly fits the horse's hoof are the hammer and anvil. In a typical shoeing operation, the hooves of the horse to be shod are first cleaned, cut and trimmed. Any irregularities in the shape of the hoof are reduced to the extent possible. Then, the farrier will either use standard pre-formed shoes, or, on occasion, a farrier may form his own shoes from straight bar stock. In either event, the shoes must then be fitted to each individual foot on each individual horse. It is highly unusual that two or more of the hooves on any one horse will accept the same size and shape shoe. Further, it is highly unusual for any horse's hoof to accept the standard shoe without some further shaping. Accordingly, in virtually every instance, some shaping of the shoe must be done by the farrier before it is attached to the horse's hoof.
The procedure typically begins with the farrier placing the standard or his personally formed shoe against the horse's hoof and making a mental note of the modifications needed to the shape of the shoe to conform it to the shape of the hoof. The farrier will then take the shoe to the anvil and by placing the shoe in various positions on the anvil and striking the shoe repeatedly with the hammer, modify the shape of the shoe. This process involves repetitively removing the shoe from the anvil after several blows have been administered to check the amount of deformation. The shoe is then again fitted to the horse's hoof, and, in most instances, the process is repeated several times until an exact fit is accomplished. This will typically require several "sightings" of the shoe against the hoof to check for fit. Each such sighting requires that the farrier walk from the location where he has his hammer and anvil back to where the horse is located; the farrier must then position himself under the horse, raise the horse's hoof, compare the fit, put the horse's hoof back on the ground and walk back to the anvil for further modifications.
As the shape of the shoe approaches the shape of the hoof, the modifications may be quite slight, such that the entire operation of raising the horse's hoof, checking the fit, putting the horse's foot back down and walking back to the anvil is undertaken simply to make a very minor adjustment. This is not only time consuming but can be irritating to the horse, and exhausting to the farrier who must repetitively position himself under the horse and pick up the horse's hoof. It is not unusual for horses to lean against the farrier during this operation, such the farrier's work load is substantially increased.
Another drawback to the use of the hammer and anvil is that a farrier does encounter instances when it is impossible, or highly difficult, to transport the hammer and anvil to a location near the horse.
Emery, U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,339 discloses a manual tool for shaping individual horseshoes (known as the "pocket anvil" design). This design has certain plugs and flanges. The plugs and flanges can be brought to bear upon the horseshoe positioned within the tool to shape the horseshoe.
The pressure or contact points on the pocket anvil tool for bending, straightening, and leveling the sections of the steel bar which comprise a horseshoe are fixed in relation to each other on the jaws of the tool. This fixed relationship imposes a limitation on the range of width, thickness, and overall size of horseshoes which can be bent, straightened, or leveled effectively with this known tool. Consequently, three sizes of the prior art tool have to be manufactured to accommodate the range of horseshoes commonly used.
In addition, in operating the pocket anvil tool of U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,339, the tool handles may often be too far apart in bending large shoes and too close together in bending small shoes for efficient operation. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved tool for shaping horseshoes.